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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343312">An Unlikely Encounter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin'>astralpenguin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood &amp; Manga</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Attempt at Humor, Crack, Edward's Horrible Fashion Sense, Gen, Humor, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Multiverse, My First Work in This Fandom, and i'm so sorry it turned out to be this, this fic has Implications but we're not examining any of them</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 07:47:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343312</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alphonse had really hoped that that would be it for Rush Valley Adventures™, but the sudden appearance of a girl in the middle of the street had him abandoning that thought.</p><p>When he said it was sudden, he really did mean <i>sudden.</i> As in, one moment the street was empty, and the next moment, out of nowhere, there was a girl there.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alphonse Elric &amp; Edward Elric &amp; Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric &amp; Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Unlikely Encounter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBreeze/gifts">IceBreeze</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>my partner said that they wouldn't write it. which i took as a challenge for some reason that not even i am aware of</p><p>this doesn't deserve any of the proofreading i did, i hate it. have fun :D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Elric brothers hadn’t spent very long in Rush Valley in total, and they’d already had more than their fair share of excitement. During their first trip here, there’d been Paninya’s theft of Edward’s watch, followed by the birth of Satella and Ridel’s son. They were now nearing the end of their second stay in the town, and <em> that </em>had been almost entirely taken up by the antics of a prince whose primary pastimes were apparently eating more than he could afford and passing out in random alleys.</p><p>Alphonse had really hoped that that would be it for Rush Valley Adventures™, but the sudden appearance of a girl in the middle of the street had him abandoning that thought.</p><p>When he said it was sudden, he really did mean <em> sudden. </em>As in, one moment the street was empty, and the next moment, out of nowhere, there was a girl there.</p><p>Her hair was long and dark, with streaks of purple through it. And.... were the tips red? They <em> were. </em>Alphonse had never seen anything like it before. He generally tried to keep an open mind, he really did, but he had to admit that the hairstyle was hideous.</p><p>And her <em> clothes. </em></p><p>Her skirt looked like it was made of leather, she was wearing a corset, and every single one of her garments was black. Surely she was uncomfortable? Rush Valley was in the South of Amestris! It wasn’t far from Dublith, and while it had been a long time since Alphonse had been able to feel the heat, he remembered how hot it could be. Even Ed had taken off his coat today, complaining about how hot it was and saying that he couldn’t wait until they were back in Central.</p><p>But if the temperature was making this girl suffer, she wasn’t showing it.</p><p>She looked lost.</p><p>“Are you alright?” he called out to her.</p><p>She startled, and spun around to face him.</p><p>Seeing her look of slight panic, Alphonse held out his hands placatingly.</p><p>He was used to people freaking out at the sight of the armour. He was also used to calming people down quickly.</p><p>“It’s okay!” he said. “You just seem lost. Maybe I could help you figure out where you’re going?”</p><p>The girl took a step closer to him and narrowed her eyes.</p><p>“WTF r u sum kind off prep?” she said.</p><p>Now, Alphonse missed his body dearly. For nearly a third of his life, he’d been trapped as just a soul bound to a hollow suit of armour. He hadn’t been able to sleep, or eat, or feel a single physical sensation. It was awful. And yet he was sure that he’d never missed having a proper human body more than he did in this exact moment.</p><p>He desperately wanted to blink in confusion.</p><p>“Uh,” he said, “what do you mean by that?”</p><p>The girl rolled her eyes.</p><p>“i CANOT beliv u dont no wat a prep is, dat mens ur totally a prep looser.”</p><p>Alphonse was at a complete loss.</p><p>He heard a knock on hollow metal.</p><p>“Hey Al,” said Ed. “Don't step backwards, I’m right behind you.”</p><p>“Hey brother,” said Alphonse.</p><p>Ed stepped around the back of Alphonse and stopped by his side. “Ling’s passed out in my bed, so I figured I’d come see what you’re getting up to.”</p><p>“Well,” said Alphonse, “I was offering to help this girl find her way around, but...”</p><p>Ed looked at the girl, who’d produced a tube of lipstick from somewhere (where did it come from? It didn’t look like her outfit had any pockets) and was now applying it, and then looked back up at Alphonse. “But what?” he asked.</p><p>Unsure of what to say, Alphonse just gestured towards her.</p><p>Ed stepped forwards.</p><p>“Oi, you,” he said.</p><p>The girl put her lipstick away and looked at Ed.</p><p>“omG ur trosers look amaazin!!” she said, walking towards him. “are they from Hot Topic? i LUV Hot Topipc!”</p><p>“What, these?” said Ed, gesturing to his trousers. “Nah, I made them myself.”</p><p>He had. He’d bought the material - black faux leather specially designed to keep excess heat in or out as necessary - and used alchemy to make a few different pairs. When he wore them with his red coat, he looked every bit the edgy teenager, but there wasn’t any harm in letting him do it. He enjoyed what he wore, and anyone who’d ever expressed a distaste for it were either below Ed’s rank or wasn’t someone whose opinion Ed cared about.</p><p>(The Colonel had said that it wasn’t worth the energy to make him dress properly, and that one day he might grow out of it on his own. The was the closest any of the team had ever got to actually criticising Ed’s taste in fashion.)</p><p>“You mad them?” The girl’s eyes lit up. “That is awsum!!!! I wish I cud make cloving, Id make sum rly cool goffik stuffff.”</p><p>Ed didn’t even bat an eye.</p><p>Alphonse wasn’t sure how Ed could understand her.</p><p>Was it because he had a body? Did having a body make the sounds that were coming out of that girl’s mouth easier to make sense of? It wasn’t that Alphonse had no idea what she was saying, he could just about figure it out, but Ed didn’t seem to be having any difficulty at all.</p><p>Alphonse turned around and retreated into Garfiel’s shop.</p><p>“Winry,” he said. “Could you come outside for a sec?”</p><p>She nodded, and followed him out.</p><p>He pointed towards Ed and the mystery girl, who were now enthralled in some kind of deep conversation.</p><p>“Can you go over there and let me know if you have any idea what that girl is saying?”</p><p>Winry went over to them.</p><p>It wasn’t long before she spun on her heels and stormed back over to Alphonse.</p><p>“You okay?” Alphonse asked.</p><p>“I don’t even know what a prep is, but I could tell from her tone of voice that it wasn’t anything good.”</p><p>“Yeah, she called me that as well.” Alphonse shook his head. “Did you think that she talks weird?”</p><p>“Oh, yeah,” said Winry. “Definitely. I couldn’t tell if it’s her accent, or if she’s just not saying things right, but it was really strange.”</p><p>Okay, so it wasn’t just Alphonse that was struggling. That was a relief.</p><p>The girl raised her voice.</p><p>“R U RLY chosin HER ova ME???”</p><p>“Uh, yeah?” said Ed, taking a step back. “Winry’s my best friend, you’re a stranger, and you were rude to her. It’s pretty simple.”</p><p>“I HAT YOU!!!!!!!”</p><p>The girl pulled out a knife.</p><p>(Again, Alphonse had no idea where she was storing this stuff. He also recognised that this wasn’t the most pressing issue.)</p><p>“Brother!” he said, starting forwards.</p><p>He didn’t need to worry.</p><p>Before the girl could get any closer to him, Edward darted forwards and punched her in the side of the head.</p><p>She fell to the floor in a heap.</p><p>And then she vanished.</p><p>Alphonse stared at the spot where the mystery girl had been just moments before.</p><p>“That really just happened, right?” asked Winry.</p><p>“Right,” said Alphonse.</p><p>“I didn’t imagine any of that?”</p><p>“If you did then I did too.”</p><p>Winry nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Any idea <em> what </em>just happened?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“Glad we’re on the same page.”</p><p>Ed walked over to them.</p><p>“That was weird,” he said.</p><p>“Do <em> you </em>have any idea what just happened?” asked Winry.</p><p>Ed shook his head.</p><p>“Great,” said Winry.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>(“Oh, you guys must’ve met Enoby,” said Paninya when they told her about it later.</p><p>“Enoby?” asked Alphonse.</p><p>“Yeah! As far as we can tell, she’s from an alternate universe or something. Wherever she’s from is kinda unstable, and she ends up here from time to time. She’s harmless, and she’s never here for very long, so all the locals tend to just ignore her until she goes away on her own.”</p><p>Somehow, getting answers to his questions had only left Alphonse with yet more questions.</p><p>It was a feeling that he was quickly getting used to, and not one that he particularly enjoyed.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>drop a comment if you enjoyed lmao</p><p>come say hi on <a href="https://astralpenguin.tumblr.com/">tumblr!!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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